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REPORTS: CHILE |
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Military's
Confessions and Denials the Show to
Watch
Gustavo
González
SANTIAGO, (IPS) - Military-watching is
becoming a diversion in Chile as
subordinates reveal information on
human rights crimes committed by the
Augusto Pinochet regime (1973-1990)
and the dictator's former lieutenants
announce their ”mea culpa”, while
retired army brass call for full
implementation of Pinochet's 1978
amnesty decree.
Nearly 30 years after the 1973 coup d'état,
these events underscore the tensions
existing between the former officers
involved in past human rights
violations and the current commanders
who want to clear the record, Héctor
Salazar, attorney for victims of the
dictatorship, said in comments to IPS.
Vivian Díaz, president of the
Association of Families of the
Detained-Disappeared (AFDD), says the
series of confessions by those
involved in the dictatorship's
repressive apparatus and the attempts
by retired military chiefs to avoid
being held responsible for the crimes
are a reaction to recent advances in
legal investigations of human rights
violations.
The state-owned Televisión Nacional
broadcast statements Monday evening by
Juan Carlos Molina, a former army
helicopter mechanic, who said he
participated in the late 1970s in
throwing the bodies of nine of the
dictatorship's political prisoners --
eight men and a woman -- into the
Pacific ocean
The bodies of the nine who had been
”disappeared” were ”wrapped and
tied to lengths of train rails so they
would sink,” said Molina, adding
that the prisoners had been killed
with anaesthesia so ”gave off a
stench of chloroform that was
unbearable.”
The Chilean daily 'El Mercurio'
published on Jun. 29 an extensive
interview with Eliseo Cornejo, a
retired non-commissioned army officer,
who said he had witnessed the
shootings of 21 people held in the
presidential palace, La Moneda, during
the bloody Sep. 11, 1973 coup.
Cornejo said he participated in the
illegal burials of the bodies of
prisoners shot at Peldehue, a military
base north of Santiago. He recounted
how, five years later, in December
1978, under the orders of his
superiors, he helped locate those
bodies, which were dug up and moved to
other locations to prevent discovery.
He said he decided to go public with
this information after a judge charged
him and other retired military members
with the crime of illegal exhumation,
amid renewed interest in Chile in
clearing up the unresolved cases of
the dictatorship's human rights
violations, particularly the fate of
some 1,000 disappeared.
This interest in part has been
promoted by the current commander of
the army, Gen. Juan Emilio Cheyre, who
on Jun. 13 called upon his brothers in
arms and the rest of Chilean society
to surmount the divisive issues of the
past and to build consensus so that
”never again” would human rights
violations occur in this country.
Cheyre's message, applauded by
President Ricardo Lagos, coincided
with efforts of the government and of
the right-wing opposition to draw up
ways to streamline the approximately
300 court cases on Pinochet-era human
rights crimes and to expand the system
of reparations for the dictatorship's
victims and families.
The revelation about the removal of
the bodies of the disappeared prompted
eight retired lieutenant generals --
who served as vice-commanders of the
army during the dictatorship -- to
issue a surprise declaration Jul. 3 in
which they said they regretted the
anguish caused by the human rights
abuses.
Pinochet headed the Chilean army with
the rank of captain from August 1973
to March 1998. During the military
regime, the post of army
vice-commander was created and was
filled by officials who had proved
loyal to the dictator.
The declaration by the eight former
vice-commanders was prepared in
collaboration with the current joint
chiefs of staff, and the signatories
say they uphold the so-called
”Cheyre Doctrine”, which calls for
the armed forces to stay out of the
political sphere and to obey the
civilian authority, as before the 1973
coup.
Initially it was said that the
lieutenant generals' statement had the
support of the aged Pinochet, but the
word in media circles this week was
that the former dictator had not been
consulted and that his family had
”cut off relations” with the eight
retired officers.
The spread of these rumours coincided
with a statement issued by the Corp of
Retired Generals and Admirals of the
Armed Forces, which asks the Chilean
courts to disallow the status of
”ongoing kidnapping” for
unresolved disappearances and to apply
the 1978 amnesty law in the cases of
the military members accused of
participating in forced disappearances
during the dictatorship.
In the years since democracy was
reinstated in 1990, Chilean courts
gradually established precedent for
the dictatorship-era disappearances to
be handled as crimes of ongoing kidnap
-- meaning that there is no statute of
limitations -- as long as the victim
is not found, whether dead or alive.
This has allowed judges try cases of
disappearances, giving rise to a
continuous parade of retired military
members and other agents of the
dictatorship through the Chilean court
system, proving particularly
irritating to Pinochet's former
collaborators.
”It is worrisome that once again the
retired generals are insisting on
application of the (1978) amnesty
decree, because what they are really
seeking is an end to the legal
categorisation of kidnaps” as
ongoing crimes, AFDD activist and
leader Díaz told IPS.
”We asked President Lagos on Jul. 2,
when we presented him with our (human
rights) proposal, to annul the amnesty
decree because we believe that crimes
against humanity cannot be left in
impunity,” she added.
Attorney Salazar attributes the
reaction of the retired generals and
admirals to the fact that the
revelations about the removal of the
bodies and disposal at sea point to
the responsibility of the former
commanders, who now see ”that the
long arm of the law might reach
them.”
This is why they are attempting ”to
paralyse the legal investigations and
are exerting pressure. But on the
other hand we have the current (armed
forces) commanders, particularly in
the army, who have been emphatic in
stating that it is up to the courts to
investigate and to establish the
truth,” he said.
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